Draft:Villa Buonaccorsi

Villa Buonaccorsi is an 18th century villa, enlarged from a 16th century building, located on the top of a hill (approximately 110 metres above the sea level) between Potenza Picena and its district, Porto Potenza Picena, overlooking the Adriatic Sea.

History
The main body of the villa, dating back to the 16th century, was enlarged by the will of the count Raimondo Buonaccorsi around the 18th century. The villa underwent its most significant restoration in 1745-1750 at the initiative of Pietro Bernasconi, close co-worker to Luigi Vanvitelli, a prominent Italian architect and painter. Its wide halls are decorated by Benedetto Biancolini and make the villa well known also abroad together with its precious Italian-style garden. The first notices of the Buonaccorsi family in the Marche region, in Macerata and Potenza Picena, date back to the 13th century and they’re considered to be – without certainty – a branch of the homonymous Florence family.

The Villa
As a country residence of the Buonaccorsi family, the 18th century villa in Potenza Picena met the needs of a comfortable life. A little baroque church, dedicated to Saint Philip Neri, belongs to the complex. The current appearance was developed around a quadrangular edifice with a courtyard, built during the second half of the 16th century, as proven by the remains of a fortified site. The villa is surrounded by walls: on the right, there’s the main entrance and a little fortification where once there was a cannon (there still are some iron balls in the surrounding vineyards). The building plan is irregular with several units which enclose a courtyard with a portico. The 18th century baroque garden was probably designed by the architect Andrea Vici. The last renovations of the garden can be dated back to the first decades of the 20th century, until the death of the Count Carlo Buonaccorsi in the 1950s and the Countess Giuseppina Matteucci Buonaccorsi in the 1970s. Thanks to the following owners’ care, the garden underwent a daily maintenance which preserved it in great conditions until today. The villa stands on a small hill with a landscape view of green hills and valleys. The exposure is intentionally protected from the coldest winds, in order to allow the growth of ornamental plants and, above all, citrus fruit in soil or pots. Villa Buonaccorsi has been also used as a venue for weddings, meetings or company dinners.

The loggia
In the loggia, situated in the main building of the villa, there are some frescoes dating back to around 1750 – painted by the artist Benedetto Biancolini. The loggia is composed by three bays correspondent to three windows where eight scenes, taken from the poem “Jerusalem Delivered” by Torquato Tasso, are presented in chronological order, on the ceiling vault. The poem narrates the Christian heroic deeds against the Saracens to reconquer the city of Jerusalem in the first Crusade. Some Turkish slaves, surrounded by war trophies and still-life paintings, are laying in the lunettes, enclosed by a baroque frame.

History
The Villa Buonaccorsi garden in Potenza Picena is one of the most fascinating of Italy, well-known also abroad. Since its distant origins, the place became famous especially for the garden: here the time seems to have stopped, to be preserved intact in each detail, from the caves’ decor to the flowerbeds’ design, star- or lozenge-shaped. In 2016, it was proclaimed the 10th most beautiful garden in Italy. Probably the garden was designed by Andrea Vici (very active in the Marche region) or by one of his assistants, following the sketch of a pre-existing garden. The Villa Buonaccorsi garden includes some water effects, and the greenhouses where centuries-old plants are hosted, survived since the ancient age of the complex building. Musicant statues move at the rhythm of the flowing water with their instruments. In the dungeons, big barrels of good wine were conserved, produced by the nearby vineyards, and some stone tanks for oil settling are still intact.

Structure
The garden was realised between the second half of the 17th century and the first decades of the following one. South-looking, it goes down the hill slope with five terracings linked by a wide central stair and two intermediate levels. The four flowerbeds around the central fountain of the upper terracing are a rare example of a garden of flowers in its original form, with small dividing stones placed around a pyramidal pinnacle. Boxwood hedges and ancient citrus vases mark the other terracings, which preserve an exceptional set of 105 garden statues (depicting ancient or Commedia dell'Arte characters) from the workshop of Orazio Marinali from Vicenza. The garden is also rich in fountains and obelisks, grotesque figures and dwarfs, grottoes, niches and water effects. In the centre of the garden there is a fountain with four statues representing the seasons, symbolising the flow of time. The design of this garden is described in the famous treatise “Flora, seu De florum cultura” (1633-1638), by the Jesuit and naturalist Giovanni Battista Ferrari from Siena. At the lower boundary of the garden there is the so-called 'Teatrino degli automi' (Theatre of Automata): a grotto covered with limestone rocks and shells that houses hydraulic and mechanical games that are no longer functional today. In the centre there is a figure called Cecco Birbo, a hunter in 18th-century clothing who plays a trumpet and once held a rifle. Behind him there are three niches with some automata: a Turk playing a trumpet, a Harlequin beating a drum, and a forge, possibly Vulcan's. On the eastern side of the small theatre there is the long lemon house used to shelter citrus fruits. A second cave is located in the western area: it is the 'Cave of the Friars' (also known as 'The Devil's Cave' where Saint Francis and Saint Anthony appear to cover their faces when evil shows up). Below there is the 'Avenue of the Emperors' where the statue of the goddess Flora stands at the end. The garden was extended in the mid-19th century with the addition of the so-called 'Yew Garden', a vast quadrangular terrace with trees located at the western end. The Buonaccorsi garden also has a vast English-style woodland (with many trees, an artificial lake and a small bridge), interrupted on either side by two large fountains, known as fish pools, and separated from the garden by a high wall.